A Mathematical A-Z Book

The Final Project The final project will be to create a mathematical A-Z book. The final project must be typed (double-spaced, with standard margins) except for calculations, graphs and/or pictures. Your projects should be checked for spelling and grammar. No late projects will be accepted. The A-Z book must be bound in some way, have a title (created by you) and an aesthetically pleasing color cover (designed by you). You must prepare a chapter (of at least 1 ½ double-spaced typed pages excluding pictures and/or graphs) per letter of the alphabet. Each letter chapter must include at least one picture and one reference (please list the letter chapter references at the end of each letter chapter). Throughout the book, you must include at least 5 letter chapters about famous mathematicians (with at least 2 being women), at least 5 letter chapters about major concepts in mathematics (such as derivatives, probabilities, fractions, voting, etc.), at least 2 letter chapters about a famous quantity (such as 0, 1, infinity, e, i, pi or phi), 1 letter chapter should be a collection of your favorite quotes about mathematics and at least 1 letter chapter should be about what mathematics means to you and your reflections about the subject of mathematics. At some point in your book, you must mention at least 2 famous formulas, show at least 3 complete problems or proofs, have at least 1 mathematical word etymology and have at least 1 mathematical activity description for the reader to try out for themselves (these need not take up entire chapters, rather they should be worked into chapters as a small part of a chapter). Please include a Table of Contents. Page numbers are NOT required. You may include (verbatim) up to 6 chapters written by other current Explorations in Math students at UMass Lowell. The inclusion of more than 6 chapters written by other people will be considered plagiarism and a final grade of 0 will be assigned. Should you choose to include chapters written by another student, they must be at least 1 ½ double-spaced pages long plus a picture or graphic and a reference (in other words, they must meet the full requirements listed in the syllabus for a chapter). You may NOT change anything about chapters included from another student except the title (if you need to do so to make it fit within your book). At the beginning of the chapter, you must include “Written and edited by XXXXX XXXXXXXX” and on your table of contents page, you must put a * by those chapter titles written by other students (or else you will receive a 0 on your final project for plagiarism). At the bottom of your table of contents page, please write “ * Reprinted with permission from the original author” if you choose to include any chapters written by other students (or else you will receive a 0 on your final project for plagiarism). The chapters written by other students do NOT count toward your famous people, concepts, quantities, quotes, meaning of math, problems, formulas, etymology or activity totals, so you must accomplish those goals in the chapters you write yourself! You will NOT be graded for SPELLING or GRAMMAR errors in the chapters written by other students. As the A-Z book will be graded by another student, please feel free to use a pen name or to withhold your name from your book until the grading is complete.